9 January, 2008

RIP Netscape

In the primeval times before the first browser war, Netscape was the browser, having a 90% market share, but its popularity has declined dramatically, to a point where a 0.6% market share is no longer viable.  AOL (which is arguably to blame for a lack of innovation since 2003) has closed the project, and will cease active product support on 1 February.

The browser will still be available for download on an unsupported basis, and I doubt user-run support forums are about to close, but the official advice is for netizens (ahem) to migrate to Firefox.

It's a little sad for historical reasons, and I hadn't realised the decline in user base had been so drastic, but the reason I hadn't realised may be that I haven't actually used the browser since, ooh, 1998-ish.

[Belatedly via BoingBoing.]